


The Belljar

by karmad



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura and Coran pilot lions now., Everybody is Homesick, Everyone hurts, Galra Keith (Voltron), Lance is the Black Lion!, Like, M/M, Multi, Pray for the space gays, Save Keith 2k17, Save Shiro 2k17, Send Hugs, Shiro is AWOL, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Why am I so mean to my babies, eh, grab tissues, sad asf, send help
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-10-20 15:07:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10665183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karmad/pseuds/karmad
Summary: Keith was taken prisoner during a mission to find Shiro.   The rest of the Paladins, in an effort to find both Keith AND Shiro try to fill in the spaces in between.





	1. Heritage

**Author's Note:**

> Well hello there~ It's been a while. I might as well get this out of the way too:
> 
> ♦Voltron, its characters, locations, and corresponding ships don't belong to me. That's too much power for one fan-girl♦

Life here was like a belljar. I was preserved. I couldn't grow, only wither in this "perfect" environment. My petals fell all around me. My color fading and in the end. I wasn't even me anymore. I wasn't the perfect red rose. My thorns weren't clipped. They were given free range. Pricking the finger of all who touched me. My black hair started coming out in clumps as the purple came in. My ears felt like they were on fire as they expanded. I could hear everything at this point. The sentries changing shifts, the steady hum of the ship's engines. It was driving me insane. My teeth grew overnight and I lost count of how many times my teeth cut my tongue. There were no mirrors or even mirror-like surfaces in my cell but, I didn't need a mirror to tell me I looked like a monster. 

I don't really know how long they had me. Days? Weeks? Months? Time is a social construct and when you're alone without a clock or a watch telling time is impossible. I tried leaving tallies on the wall but eventually I lost count with my little system. I eventually gave up hope of the others finding me but, my mind drifted to them more than usual. I thought of Hunk and his hugs and how they basically swallowed me and all my insecurities up, I thought about if that was his real name and wondered what his favorite food was. My mind fluttered to Pidge and how strong she portrayed herself as after the disappearance of the majority of her immediate family and all the times she spent the night in my room laying herself bare crying until she threw up like the little girl she was, being the perfect soldier in the morning at breakfast wearing that mask of sarcasm and jokes, Lance doing the same thing. Lance. Next to Shiro, I thought about Lance the most. On the nights where we both couldn't sleep and we explored the castle we'd forget about our silly feuds. We'd drop the Keith and Lance neck and neck and just be: Keith and Lance. I thought about it for a while. Keith and Lance. I liked it. But would Lance? I wasn't even sure if I would ever see him again but I still wondered, still craved his mutual feelings. My cravings were cut short by a set of footsteps. I pressed my ear to the metal slab of my cell these footsteps were different from the sentries and the druids. It's almost like the person was....skipping? I heard the steps stop outside my cell and I heard a muffled conversation. Moments later the thick slab of metal rose like a garage door and a man stood in the opening.  
He was tall. Way taller than me. He had long flowing white hair with elongated purple ears protruding from the sides. A series of piercings littered both of the lavender ears. His eyes were angular and yellow devoid of pupils, and little red half moons were situated under his eyes. His mouth was turned up in a haughty grin as he took a step towards me. I took a step back. His grin faded.  
"Akira, Brother, do you not know who I am?" He asked his face showing a genuine hurt.  
Akira?! Brother?! As long as I could remember I've been called Keith. Keith Thomas Kogane. I has no brothers or sisters either. I took another step back. The rush of air into the belljar causing me to whither faster. 

"Who are you?" I asked. "Why'd you open my cell?! Did you come here to torture me again?! I swear, I told that bitch Haggar everything I knew!"  
The man took another step towards me. Still looking hurt.  
"Akira, that's no way to talk to family."  
I choked on my spit. Family!?  
The man rushed to my side and patted my back. I flinched at his concern. "Don't touch me! You Galra cockroaches are no family of mine!!"  
The man stepped back. The little crescent moons slightly glowing. His face stern. "Akira, I can now see why Father put you in here, disowning you like this. For His judgement may seem harsh even upon His own spawn casting them out. But, dear brother, look where it got Him? Our Father is the rising Sun in millions of star systems, he's-" 

"He's a bloodthirsty tyrant hellbent on destroying the one thing that could bring the Universe back in order!" 

"AND YOU'RE HELL BENT ON DESTROYING THE BEING THAT BROUGHT YOU INTO THE UNIVERSE ITSELF!" The man snapped, his crescent moons blazing against his face. 

We sat in silence for a moment, the him of the engines and the heavy footsteps of the sentries changing shifts filled the air. The tension was palaple. The man took a step closer to my cell. His eyes were the color of a live wire, a bright electric yellow his lips turned into a snarl.  
"Who are you?" I asked, his ears twitched as I spoke.  
"Apparently, I am no one." He said as he turned on his heels and stormed away.  
I sat on the old ratty cot of my cell.  
"Apparently."


	2. Akira

I was excited to meet him, my older brother, the fabled "perfect son" Akira. I watched him over the security feeds looking helpless and pathetic, nothing like a true son of Father. I watched as his fur came in in little clumps, how he'd snatch every single hair out as it came. It disgusted me how he just forgot the entirety of his heritage, of himself. I was furious when father sent him away to be protected while he had the rest of us fight for our lives. 

So many siblings lost.   
But he who calls our Father a tyrant lives!? It was ludicrous!   
After our encounter I watched him on the security feeds again. I watched him pace back and forth like a dumb animal, clawing at his fur and crying.   
Crying.   
The great Akira, sitting in his cell crying. It was sickening.   
I ordered for a druid to release him to my quarters and he came shortly there after, I could see the shackles around his wrists were too tight and I released them. He looked at me, rubbing the feeing back to his hands.   
"Why did you bring me here?" I could hear the slight waver in his voice, I could see the wet fur around his eyes.   
I stepped past him to one of the lavish couches in my room and sat, patting the other side gently.   
"I'm here to tell you who you are, dear Akira."


	3. Parentage

He called me that name again. Akira. I ground my teeth as he patted the couch.  
"Don't call me that!" I spat.  
_______

I flinched when he yelled at me.  
"Then what should I call you!? Keith Kogane, Red Paladin of Voltron!? Look at yourself!!" I gestured to him with a wave of my hand. "You've been here for six months without the other Paladins even TRYING to retrieve you! Are you even that anymore!?!" 

I saw something inside him break. His eyes vacant. He isn't who he thinks he is. He's not my enemy, he's my brother and the Empire needs him. I need him.  
_____  
"Why?" I said. "Why are you so convinced that I'm your brother!? Why are you so convinced I'm the son of that.....that.....that fucking monster!? Have you seen what he has done?! The innocents he enslaved!? The cultures he destroyed with just a wave of his hand!?"  
I was crying now.  
"You're proud of being the son of that...thing?"  
The man stood up now.  
"That " thing " is my father! I am loyal to him! That monster you see, he's your damned Savior! You should take heed! If Father heard you about him like that he'd cut you down where you stand"  
"What's the difference between my a drop of my blood spilled and the millions of gallons painted over him?! Why was I worth saving and not you if you're so fucking loyal."  
_________  
I sat silent. What did they do to my brother? He wasn't the same, he didn't even remember... 

"You were worth saving because you're the eldest, you, as a child had the most promise of becoming the next leader of the galaxy. Father had so much pride in you he saved you and only you from The War. We lost so many, but the hope that our older brother was somewhere safe kept us going...or at least me." I hung my head low. 

We sat in silence again. 

"How many were lost?" He asked quietly. 

I looked up at him. He looked genuinely sorry, even if he didn't remember. 

"He named us alphabetically, going all the way to Z. Twice. I am Lotor, the 12th and you are Akira, the 1st. We're the only ones left" I explained. 

"Why didn't he protect all of you? What kind of father does that to his children, selecting one and only one to survive!" 

I did not know the answer to that question.


	4. Revenge

The more that Lotor told me, the more I hated Zarkon. The way he sacrificed his children like that! I just couldn't believe it. I felt sorry for Lotor and I now really saw how hurt he was. He looked like a broken man. No family, except me and that monster.   
I wanted to help him. I needed to.


	5. Lost

If you lost something in space, chances are you'll never find it. Contrary to popular belief, planets moved, galaxies shift, everything changes.   
We've been searching for him for a few months now. Our original team now dwindled down to three.   
I was Black now.   
Pidge was Red.   
Hunk was Green.   
Allura and Coran filled in the spaces in between.   
We still couldn't form Voltron. Everyone was too distracted.   
Pidge found her family. Her father wasn't the same. Bones broken and mended wrong making it harder for him to walk, his eyes over-strained from going too long without his glasses, his hair falling out due to stress.   
He was complete when she left him.   
Broken when he returned.  
They tried putting Mr.Holt into one of the pods. But nothing changed. If anything he only got worse. He was frail and his skin was translucent. You could count his ribs and see his eye sockets in his skull. He developed a cough too, his lungs not used to the clean air in the Castle.   
He died in his sleep shortly thereafter.   
A week later Pidge located Matt. He wasn't the same either.  
He had these huge metal goggles that looked like they were painfully seared to his skin. Purple lights blinked on the sides.   
Haggar experimented on him. She had to. Nobody in the universe was this.....sick.   
When Pidge found him he didn't even register she was there.   
He just.....attacked. I had to push Pidge out of the way while Hunk, Allura and Coran tried to fight Matt without hurting him.   
Of course we failed.   
Coran was hurt. Bad. And that was when Pidge jumped in and killed Matt.   
At that point she was changed. She was filled with the fire and rage to properly pilot Red. She did the same "burial ritual" she did for her father. She cremated Matt and scattered his ashes across the cosmos.   
She didn't wear her glasses anymore either. It's not like she needed them.   
She needed us though.


	6. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. I just finished school and I wanted to take a little chill time. 
> 
> Enjoy! 

Hunk found love. Weeks before Shiro disappeared Hunk found a rare space jewel that he turned into a ring for Shay.   
He proposed to her afterwards.   
Of course I was the best man, seeing as I'm Hunk's best frien and Coran made sure everything was official. Allura walked Hunk down the aisle and Pidge was the flower child.   
The service was beautiful. The Balmerans made all the arrangements and they were bound together with Hunk's headband.   
Then Zarkon attacked again.   
A slew of small robeasts invaded the Balmera. The Balmerans that couldn't defend themselves took shelter inside while some stayed and fought. Some like Shay and Rax.   
Rax was the first to go. He sacrificed himself for Shay throwing himself in front of her as a stray robeast attacked. Afterwards, the Balmera swallowed him within. Shay did the same for Hunk. The ring still on her thick hard fingers, her happy tears painted over with tears of sadness, Hunk's headband wrapped around her wrist as she sunk into the Balmera.   
At first, Hunk was motionless. He sat in the place where Shay sunk in like she was never there in the first place. He was numb. He was zoned out. He wasn't Hunk anymore really.   
He tore through the offending robeasts and then some and when I tried to calm him down he lashed out at me too.   
I still have the scar on my cheek.   
Coran was able to tranquilize him and he was asleep for a few days.   
When he woke up he thought it was all a dream. Until we crashed reality down on him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. This has been an emotional rollercoaster. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, Bookmark and Kudos and most importantly enjoy! ;-)


End file.
